In 1873 Saint-Saëns visited England, where he had the experience of trying out the largest organ to date by the great organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, which was then awaiting shipment to Sheffield, before playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 for the London Philharmonic Society. He had of course hoped that one of his own concertos might be selected, but his chance came at last in 1885 when the Society invited him to play a concerto “either his own or not, as he prefers”. He replied by asking them if they might play one of his symphonies in one of their concerts, upon which they asked if he could compose “a new symphonic work” for the following season. Working hard on the new symphony in a quiet Austrian village, he confessed to Durand that he found light relief from this task in quickly tossing off Le Carnaval des Animaux, an extraordinary example of a masterpiece being composed ‘in brackets’, as it were. At the concert in London in May 1886 Saint-Saëns again played the Beethoven Fourth, then mounted the rostrum and conducted his new symphony, which was well received but ignored in Paris, d’Indy quoting Berlioz on the misguidedness of combining organ with orchestra: “The organ and the orchestra are both kings; or rather, one is Emperor, the other is Pope; their interests are too wide and various to be interlocked.” However, the Conservatoire Orchestra presented it the following January, achieving such a rousing success that it was repeated three times during the season, an event without precedent.

sources

A  Autograph score (1886), Stichvorlage for E, in the Bibliotheque de l’Institut, Paris

AV  Autograph manuscript of Saint-Saëns's own arrangement for 2 pianos, in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris

K  Proof copy of E1, with Saint-Saëns's autograph corrections, in the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris

P1  First edition parts, published by Durand in November 1886 (Pl. No.3621); this bristles with errors, including almost all those in the score listed in section 1 below (e.g. II M8 Vl 1xsb arco missing)